It’s that time of the year here in Ohio… Fresh veggies are starting to be available all over the place.  And Ohio sweet corn is second to none.  There’s just something about corn so fresh it’s almost wet when you get it.  Anything you can get within an hour of when it’s picked is just so much better than buying it at a store!

We’re in the midst of a bunch of good food… a couple that live nearby sell tomatoes every year, and they’ve taken to putting up a scarecrow by the road with a sign counting down the time to tomatoes being ready.  Farmers markets are going nuts with variety and quality of offerings.  We got some baby eggplant, locally grown mushrooms and all kinds of other options when we walked up to a farmers market a couple of weeks ago.  It’s almost too much, but, man, it’s good stuff!

There’s a large, local farm, with a good sized barn.  In one corner of the barn is a room set up with counters, a sink, and glass-front refrigerators.  There’s also a cash drawer (and, probably because someone took advantage of the situation, a video camera).  It’s basically an honor farm, where you go in, get what you need, pay for it, and go home with it.  

They had both bicolor corn and white Silver Queen corn.  We opted for a half dozen ears for $2, which, to them, means 7 ears of corn.  Along with that, we had some pork chops and peaches. It was such a gorgeous day on Sunday, I had to grill it all outside on the Big Green Egg.

I tend to be somewhat boring when I grill.  I like to use good ingredients and let them stand on their own for the most part.  I mean, why spend a boatload of cash on fresh caught, wild salmon just to cover it up with sauces and other flavors?  With the pork chops, though, I wanted to add something without taking away from the porky goodness!  What I decided to try was a combination of a rub and a glaze.  I think pork does well with spicy and sweet together, so I went with a 3 chile rub and a molasses glaze.

For the 3 chile rub, I went from spicy to sweet, too, starting with a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, then adding a tablespoon of chipotle pepper, and ending with a quarter cup of ancho pepper.  I liked it, but my wife thought it was a bit too spicy, so I’ll probably reduce the cayenne to a half teaspoon instead (I liked it, though!).  I applied it liberally to the pork chops, along with grey salt and black pepper.  For the glaze, I simply added 2 parts molasses to 1 part water and mixed it up.

The corn was simple… Again back to the thing with good ingredients standing on their own.  I just cut off the tops of the husks, and they were ready to go. 

I set up a 3 zone fire on the Big Green Egg, and got it going nice and hot.  The pork chops went over the hot part of the fire for 1:30 per side, then to the medium zone to finish cooking, turning every few minutes and glazing with the molasses.  The corn went over the hot part of the fire, turning a quarter turn as the husks got blackened a bit.  Once the pork chops reached 145 degrees, everything came off and went to the table!

The glaze gave a great color to the pork chops, mixing with the deep red color from the chiles.

The corn was fantastic!  All we did was add a bit of butter and salt.  Having the husk whole has a couple of advantages.  One is that the corn doesn’t get dried out.  Another is that it stays hot longer, so you don’t have to worry about it sitting for a bit.  And, since the meat needs to rest for at least 5 minutes, it’s good the corn stays hot!

My wife found the pork chops a bit too spicy, but I loved them as they were.  The molasses was a good, sharp sweetness to stand up to the spicy chile combination.  Yum, in other words!

To end the meal, we had some really great South Carolina peaches.  This is one thing that just isn’t available as local food, but they’re too good not to have when they’re this great.  A friend recently did grilled peaches with sugar and cinnamon, so I had to take things up a bit from there, of course!  I cut 2 peaches in half and drizzled some dark rum on them that we brought back from Aruba a while ago, along with some really great double strength bourboned Madagascar vanilla, then topped with demerara sugar and cinnamon, then let them sit for about 20 minutes.  They went on the grill until they were caramelized a bit, and got topped with some vanilla whipped cream.  

This was a great summer meal, with no stove or oven in the house to heat things up inside.